Project Description
Restoration of Redstone Hall included:
- Historically authentic restoration of stone porch walls
- Dismantling and cataloging of red stone elements
- Stone resetting
- Concrete footing repair
- Historically authentic repointing
- Masonry cleaning
- Caulking and sealants
Project Collaborators: Smith Alverez and Sienkiewycz, Burlington, Vermont
About Redstone Hall: Originally the Buell family mansion, this was acquired and remodeled by the University of Vermont in the 1920s to serve as a student dormitory. It remains, in 2004, in service as an undergraduate residence hall. Redstone Campus, South Prospect Street. Built: 1885 – 1891 Original name: A.A. Buell Estate
UVM’s Redstone Campus is as distinctive as its central core campus. Built at the close of the nineteenth century by lumber magnate Addison A. Buell, there’s a great richness and humor in its evolution. It is noted that Buell was engaged in a contest of mansion-building and one-upmanship with railroad steamboat tycoon Col. Legrand Cannon whose opulent home was located nearby.1 (Incidentally, John Wilson, whose house stands on Mansfield Avenue, served as Cannon’s gardener prior to establishing his own business.2) Buell reportedly built an Egyptian Room in his mansion, in response to Cannon’s Persian Room. A long circular driveway approaches the main house, with a gatehouse standing at one end and a large carriage house at the other. A long, low, stone wall spans the entire front of the property and is broken only to accommodate the driveway. The structures are constructed from local Monkton Dolomite, commonly known as redstone. The houses were built in a Richardson Romanesque style and speak to Billings Library in this respect. The entire estate spanned some sixty-six acres.
